An enterprise might store and access business information in a number of different ways. For example, an enterprise might store a substantial amount of information about production, sales, human resources, etc. in one or more database structures created by a business service provider (e.g., SAP AG® or SalesForce®). The enterprise might also generate various views of that information as needed (e.g., to create financial reports). In some cases, the enterprise might use pre-defined user interfaces to interact with the database structures. Often, however, an enterprise will want to customize these user interfaces, or even create entirely new user interfaces, based on the business needs of the enterprise. For example, an enterprise might change a sales order user interface by adding a “Sub Product Identifier” next to an existing “Product Identifier.”
Note that a business service provider may periodically make changes to the database structures. For example, the business service provider might release system wide patches or new versions of various database structures to improve the efficiency of the system or to add new features. Unfortunately, these changes to the database structures might conflict with previous customizations made by an enterprise. For example, if business service provider has moved the location of the “Sub Product Identifier” and/or or changed the name of the element in the database structure, previous customizations made by an enterprise in connection with that element may become inoperative. Correcting such problems can be a time-consuming and expensive project, especially when substantial amounts of data elements and/or customizations are involved.
Accordingly, a method and mechanism for efficiently allowing customizations to a user interface that will not be disturbed by system-wide updates may be provided by some embodiments herein.